It is the custom and practice in many different countries of the world to decorate elevated structures, such as the eaves of buildings, with strings of decorative lights. Such light strings are comprised of a multiplicity of small bulbs, usually no greater than an inch in length, connected to each other at intervals of typically one to two feet by intertwined, twisted, insulated electrical wires. Each light string ends in a plug that may be plugged into either a socket of an adjacent light string, or into a conventional electrical outlet inside or outside the building upon which the strings of lights are installed.
In conventional practice the light strings are usually positioned by propping a ladder against the structure and climbing up the ladder to approximately the level at which the strings of lights are to be hung. The user then screws hooks, such as standard cup hooks, into the building structure, either on the inside or outside of the fascia board of an eave of a roof, or into the side of the structure above a line of windows to be decorated. Alternatively, the user may utilize wire brads or even nails to support the light strings.
Cup hooks are small structures that derive their name from use for hanging drinking cups by the cup handles from the undersides of kitchen or pantry shelves. Each cup hook has a generally C-shaped hook that terminates in a shank that projects away from the hook. The end of the shank is typically threaded with a tapered wood screw thread. Most cup hooks include some sort of flange at the transition between the hook portion and shank portion of the cup hook to limit the extent to which the threaded distal tip of the shank can be screwed into some structure, usually a wood structure. For reference purposes herein the shank end of the transition between the shank and the hook portion is considered to be the “hook shoulder” end of the shank, while the opposite pointed tip is considered to be the “distal” end of the shank.
The flange may be as small as merely an enlarged bead at the hook shoulder end of the shank, or it may be a concave, spherical arcuate segment shoulder guard, the circular edge of which bears against the building eave or fascia board when the cup hook is screwed into position.
The cup hook is installed by pressing the pointed, distal, threaded tip of the shank against a fascia board or eave and rotating the structure of the cup hook using its hook portion as a handle so that the threaded shank will penetrate into the wood. Rotation of the cup hook is continued until the threaded shank of the cup hook is securely anchored in the wooden structure of the roof eave or fascia board. The insulated wires of the light string are then laid into the hook portion of the cup hook.
In conventional practice it is not only necessary for an individual installing light strings to climb up a ladder for the purpose of installing the cup hooks and laying the wire into the hooks, but also to ascend and descend the ladder many times, repositioning it every few feet. The installer must climb up and down the ladder many times in order to install a sufficient number of cup hooks lengthwise along the elevated structure to be decorated.
The necessary ascent and descent and repositioning of a ladder to install strings of lights on elevated structures in a conventional manner is not only time consuming, laborious, and tiring, but also dangerous. Many people are simply unsteady on ladders and can fall. Others risk falling by attempting to reach too far to the side in order to avoid having to reposition a ladder or because the ladder cannot be positioned at a desired location due to the presence of a window or some other structure that will not support the force of the ladder leaning against it.
Other individuals will sometimes go out on top of a roof and lean over the edge in order to install strings of lights. This is also a dangerous practice, and in any event practical only when the roof is flat.
Despite the time and energy required to install strings of decorative lights, and despite the physical danger of falling incident thereto, the pleasure and gratification that results from the decorative effective effect achieved from hanging strings of illuminated lights at elevated levels is a very common practice. The hanging of strings of lights is often performed in this country during the holiday season of Christmas, and is also practiced to a considerable extent even in the absence of any holiday celebration. Nevertheless, as presently practiced, the hanging of strings of decorative lights is a practice that is laborious, physically demanding, time consuming, and physically dangerous.